Do you use Yelp, TripAdvisor, or any other review platform to make decisions on hotels, restaurants, events, etc.?<\/p>\n
What if you found out that restaurant or hotel that has a terrible reputation was actually one of the best in the area?\u00a0 You likely wouldn’t believe me because of all the negative things you read online.\u00a0 But, what if those were fake?\u00a0 What if, those were all posted by hackers who were exploiting the business for money.<\/p>\n
Sounds surreal, right?\u00a0 But it isn’t.\u00a0 This is actually happening.\u00a0 Recently CheapAir, a travel booking site, was contacted by hackers who threatened to post a plethora of negative reviews unless they paid the hackers approximately $10,000 in bitcoin.\u00a0 Why in bitcoin?\u00a0 Because it is an untraceable digital currency.<\/p>\n
No one, businesses included, is ever encouraged to pay the hackers.\u00a0 They are cyber criminals, meaning — there is no guarantee paying them will get you what you want.\u00a0 It may actually place a target on your back for future attacks.<\/p>\n
Avoiding these particular scams are trickier than others because the hackers aren’t actually entering your networks.\u00a0 Therefore, they don’t have to search out security vulnerabilities or hope someone will click on a malicious link or attachment.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, they simply contact the target saying to pay up, or else.<\/p>\n
If contacted by hackers in this form, do not pay.\u00a0 The best thing you can do is make the public aware of what is going on.\u00a0 This way, if they do opt to sabotage\u00a0company reviews, the public is aware they are fraudulent.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hackers Extort Business to Keep Positive Reputation Do you use Yelp, TripAdvisor, or any other review platform to make decisions on hotels, restaurants, events, etc.? What if you found out that restaurant or hotel that has a terrible reputation was actually one of the best in the area?\u00a0 You likely wouldn’t believe me because of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":55953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,183],"tags":[5550,4704,4880],"class_list":["post-59553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletter","category-tips","tag-extortion","tag-hackers","tag-tips"],"yoast_head":"\n